75% of Japan Gov't Sponsored Whale Meat Remains Unsold
By wchung | 20 May, 2025

Three-quarters of more than 1,200 tons of meat from whales caught during Japan’s so-called “research whaling” in the Northwest Pacific remains unsold, according to a report issued by a Japanese anti-whaling civic group.

Thirteen rounds of public auctions for the meat had been opened last October by the Institute of Cetacean Research, the nationally-subsidized organization behind Japan’s whaling activities. About 75% of the 1,211.9 tons offered for sale — or about 908.8 tons — remain unsold, according to the report compiled by freelance journalist Junko Sakuma and released by Japan’s Iruka & Kujira (Dolphin & Whale) Action Network.

The ICR put up for auction meat of minke, Bryde’s and sei whales in hopes of increasing whale meat consumption and generate more sales to cover the cost of the research.

“We could not achieve the results we had anticipated,” said an ICR official.

The bids submitted by wholesalers and food manufacturers were often lower than the lowest price the ICR had set for bids or no bids were received at all. The meat from 30.4% of minke whales, 81.2% of Bryde’s whales and 78.2% of sei whales remain unsold, according to the report. Another factor behind the failure was the “complicated procedures” involved in the bidding process, said the official.

The ICR plans to return to the procedures in place prior to 2011 to sell the meat on a one-on-one basis to wholesalers and direct buyers. Sales of whale meat have failed to meet the cost of whaling activities, and the central government has been subsidizing for whaling activities.

The International Whaling Commission had imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982 but Japan has been hunting whales in the norrhwest Pacific and the Antarctic Ocean under its “research whaling” program. The fact that the whale meat is sold for consumption has opened the program to critics who question the Fishery Agency’s assertion that whales are caught for scientific research purposes.

Japanese are thought to have begun whaling as early as the 12th century. Whale meat became especially popular during World War II and the decades following the war when meat was scarce.